The Sunday Magazine article “ >Celebrating Ravan ,” ( Oct. 25) jolts us out of our complacency and a refusal to accept the significance of cultures which seem to go against the spirit of the mainstream mode of thinking. The Gond people in the village of Paraswadi in Maharashtra adore and worship Ravan. The theory that ‘Lanka’ means ‘a hilly place’ in Gondi is surprising. It is said that the Gonds belong to a proto-Dravidian tribe, who came under Aryan aggression. They are also being subjected to cultural invasion by modern-day “warriors” of Hindutva. The traditional interpretation of Ramayana is turned on its head when one reads about the proto-Dravidian folk lore of the Gonds.
M. Vathapureeswaran,
Madurai
